Matagot
Matagots (also mat(t)agos), chats, chatons, kaisidh, or irusans are a felid race of NW Odenna, particularly in Cambresian areas. Greater variation in fur patterns than leonids. Staring and contentment. Felids make good guardsmen as they can sit and stare intently for long periods of time. Even if they doze off they can snap awake at the slightest sound—they don't ever sleep that deeply. Take small naps right after eating, like clockwork. High amount of leisure time, even in cities, compared to human societies. Individualistic, non-social animals. Rarely gather in groups. Don't build villages or cities. Most often live as "hermits" or slip into urban society, most comfortably in the most cosmopolitan/pluralistic cities. Find each other by scent and sound to mate, which is very noisy and less private (unlike leonids). See less color but excellent night vision. (Blue only or blue and yellow, B&W in addition for both.) Better peripheral vision, something elves do not have. Elves see further in addition to having the best of night vision as felids do. Less finite vision: very slow moving objects can seem stationary. Eyes don't move back and forth, instead head must turn. Wide eye color variation. Hear better than elves and canids, but can't hear sounds as low. Can direct ears independently to hear sounds more precisely from that direction. Sense of smell better than humans but not as good as canids. Primate-like hands and vestigial (less prominent) dewclaws. If coaxed by odd circumstances or assaulted, matagots have been known to produce viable though sterile offspring with leonids. Have 18 digits: 5 on handpaws and 4 on footpaws. Count in verbal base-10 most common, but base-8 and even base-18 are more common than in human societies. Language is more variant in sound but lesser in lexicon compared to leonid or human language. As non-social creatures language is less of a tool for them. Both females and males have either 3 or 4 pairs of nipples. They do not have fatty breasts like primates and their nipples only grow slightly when nursing cubs. Like all cats, males have barbed penises and pain is wrapped up in pleasure for copulating felids, esp. the females. When females are in heat (usu. spring and fall, though can occur year round, esp. in tropics or subtropics), males are strongly drawn to her, so she may mate with more than one. Males then use their barbs to try to scrape out the semen of any previous partners of hers. She can have kittens from multiple fathers though. Sustain far less injury from falling, extremely efficient at landing. Able to climb decently well with claws, but not as much as a small wildcat. Fit through any space their head can fit through. A small head can be a symbol of craftiness, creativity, and relative prestige. Use whiskers to measure the space. Other, more premonitional, magical detections with whiskers. Wildcats are esp. considered comical animals (much like sapient primatids view monkeys). Do not have extensive heraldric system or advanced symbolic culture. Simple to the point of incidentally discreet. Hawks, dragons, bears, and lions are symbolic animals of power when those appear. Obligate carnivores, with some omnivorous tendencies. Look down on domesticated cats for their wanton omnivory. Eat about 5-7 lbs of food / day. Do have a moderate ability to overeat (and nap more) and eat less on the following day or two. Don't drink milk. Don't engage in agriculture and rarely practice animal husbandry as a solitary farmer. May herd a small amount of cows or goats in the mountains. Don't need horses for short distance travel or battle. Wander across the land at a leisurely and unhurried pace. Very fast. Very much hunter–scavengers. Hunt rodents, birds, ungulates, and sometimes reptiles. Bugs are eaten as snacks as well, flying bugs being the favorite. Night hunting. May feast on a fallen enemy if from a tasty species. Jump a length of 6 times their height. Employ jumping in combat regularly (as opposed to humes). Dry mouth, rough tongue. Dry poop, very concentrated pee. Can get all their water from meat if they need to. In cities, they collect the dry waste in covered buckets like their neighbors and try to pee in streams (can wait longer for it to be convenient). Empty buckets right after peeing if that have to use one (due to concentratedness). Lick themselves clean. Never take baths. Hate getting rained on. Nepetal (catnip), honeysuckle bark, valerian, and matabi / silver vine are drugs for most matagots (2/3), all with a similar effect: pupil dilation, relaxant, urge to roll, playfulness, vocalization (equiv. to "yeaaaah"). Dittany and zinziba have strong healing effects for felids with mild affects similar to nepetal. Stomachs / the whole center of front are considered inappropriate to touch.Very particular about that. Don't live as long as humans or as long even than leonids. Slip away and recede into woods to die. Occasionally found in their home in a town or even at a tavern table having passed away mid nap. "He's done" is the most common and polite way to say it. Onions and garlic (the whole allium family) are poisonous to them. (Leek sword?) Cough up hairballs without much care to the social implications of this when living in society. Scent-producing glands on forehead, lips, chin; underside of paws (interdigital); and along tail. Rub against things to mark them as their possession or triangulate space to mark territory. Scratch trees or wood to do the same. Lick off scents of other species regularly, typically not fond of touch. Have been known to drop hunted rats on the doorsteps of the poor, to satisfy the instinct of pointing out to the lesser hunter(s) they need to hunt and contribute to the pride (even though they are no longer a social kin). Biting, clawing, falling back and kicking away, pouncing, leaping. Wear armor and use weapons the same as other humanoids of comparable size. Night fighting and ambushes. Sought out as scouts and spies. Sometimes even desired for work in mines as they can see as good or better than a dwarf but have no obsession with jewels or interest in mining as competition. Purring magic readily regenerates the user. Language: meows (m-type, r-type, h-type, w-type), hissing, k-hiss, trills, gargle, chuff, squawk, click, trilled click; creakiness Sources http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/07/a-group-of-cats-is-called-a-clowder/ http://messybeast.com/catnip-valerian.htm https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cat_communication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagot Category:Kins Category:Felids